Personal Branding and the Role of Public Relations

Personal Branding is becoming an important factor, above all in connection with the

marketing

of individuals (personality or celebrity marketing). Agencies and consultants are increasingly accompanying politicians, businessmen and women, scientists, artists and sports professionals as well as individuals from showbiz, the fashion and TV worlds as they become public figures/personal brands, with the result that over the last 50 years, the branding process for individuals has increased substantially. Marketing and PR experts have developed many strategies for achieving and sustaining high visibility and have refined their methods for delivering the brand. In his book, "High Visibility. The Making and Marketing of Professionals into Celebrities", Kotler, one of the best known experts on marketing, analysed the US market for celebrities with his team and attributed PR with the most dominant role of all communication disciplines: "the most essential support for most aspirants comes from public relations" (cf. Rein et al., 1997: 268). In the third (revised and expanded) edition of "High Visibility" with the new subtitle "Transforming Your Personal and Professional Brand" the authors claim that "PR is essential because all aspirants in the visibility-marketing process need distribution of their image. The role PR plays in the visibility industry involves enabling, designing, managing, and protecting the brand image" (Rein et al., 2006: 290).